Twitter to cut more than 950 employees in California after Elon Musk takeover, WARN announcement shows

After Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter last week, the social networking giant has embarked on drastic cuts to its workforce. The cuts affected a total of 983 employees in California, its home state, according to three notice letters the company sent to regional governments obtained by CNBC.

The company’s new owner, CEO and sole director Musk, wrote in a tweet Friday afternoon, “Regarding Twitter’s workforce reductions, there are unfortunately no other options when the company is losing more than $4 million/day. Everyone leaving is offered a 3-month severance, which is 50% higher than the legal requirement.”

Twitter’s reductions in force extend beyond California, and CNBC could not immediately confirm whether Musk’s description was accurate. A $4 million daily loss at the company would equate to an annual loss of about $1.5 billion.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers to give advance notice, usually within 60 days, of mass layoffs or plant closures in California. .

According to letters from Twitter, shared by the California Department of Employment Development, Twitter notified affected employees on Nov. 4. Many of these workers described losing their rights. access to email and other internal systems at Twitter, on the night of November 3 in public posts on social media, including on Twitter itself.

This type of arrangement can be thought of as “payment on behalf of notice”, in California subject to specific terms of employment. Per WARN’s announcement, permanent termination will begin January 2023.

In three different California WARN notification letters, signed by Twitter Human Resources but without an individual executive, the company wrote: “Affected employees will be paid all wages and benefits. other benefits to which they are entitled until the date of termination of the contract.”

According to WARN’s announcement, Twitter has cut about 784 workers in San Franciscoconsists of 9 senior and executive officers or managers, 147 mid-level employees who typically report directly to top executives, 592 other professionals, and 36 sales and administrative support staff combine.

At corporate satellite locations in Santa MonicaTwitter has cut about 93 employees including 17 officials and middle managers, 66 specialists and 10 combined sales and administrative support staff, the WARN announcement showed.

At a San Jose OfficeTwitter has cut about 106 employees, including one senior or senior official or manager, 18 mid-level officials and managers, 85 professionals, and two administrative support staff, according to WARN’s announcement.

Twitter sued on Thursday by former employees in a class action lawsuit proposed by workers’ rights attorney Shannon Liss Riordan and others concerned that employees are not give appropriate noticeunder federal and California law, that they will be terminated from their contract of mass dismissal.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a workers’ rights attorney representing terminated Twitter employees, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.